Al-Qaeda’s media arm, As-Sahab, released a video Thursday of a 72-year-old government contractor abducted from his home in Lahore, Pakistan, in August 2011.

Warren Weinstein of Rockville, Md., who was working on business development projects in the country for USAID, called President Obama “a family man” who should have compassion for his situation.

“Nine years ago I came to Pakistan to help my government, and I did so at a time when most Americans would not come here, and now when I need my government it seems that I have been totally abandoned and forgotten,” Weinstein says in the 13-minute video. “And so I again appeal to you to instruct your appropriate officials to negotiate my release.”

Weinstein said he was appealing to Obama “under a humanitarian basis if nothing else, and asking that you take the necessary actions to expedite my release.”

The video and an accompanying letter from Weinstein were sent to reporters in Pakistan.

“We’re working hard to authenticate this latest report, but we reiterate our call that Warren Weinstein be released and returned to his family,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement. “Particularly during this holiday season — another one away from his family — our hopes and prayers are with him and those who love and miss him.”

“The U.S. government is working to verify the authenticity of the recently released video of Warren Weinstein,” the FBI said in a statement. “We remain concerned for the safety and well-being of Mr. Weinstein and remain in contact with Warren Weinstein’s family while we continue to monitor the situation.”

As-Sahab also just released an updated version of its English-language “invitation to individual jihad” video, featuring Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev and the hacking of Lee Rigby in Britain.

Bridget Johnson is a veteran journalist whose news articles and opinion columns have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe. Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor at The Hill, where she wrote The World from The Hill column on foreign policy. Previously she was an opinion writer and editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News.
She is an NPR contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Politico and more, and has myriad television and radio credits as a commentator. Bridget is Washington Editor for PJ Media.

Pakistan was founded on the truly terrible idea of primitive Jihad, which led inevitably to a society-wide spiral of degeneration into today's filthy terrorist and hate-spewing sewer. Any American who thinks they can "help" in such a situation is beyond delusional: You could even argue acting out on such terrible delusions should be treated as a crime. We are now to subject some brave Seal Team Six members to death because the guy refused to read history? Nobody went to Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan in a fit of crackpot benevolence to "aid" those societies.

I am personally gratified by Egypt's unequivocal banning of the Muslim Brotherhood this week, and are vigorously destroying that evil stain on the national reputation. Egypt appears to be following the precedent set by modern Turkey with the brilliant Ataturk's ruthless systematic cleansing of the society of the evil of Islam.

If you wish to "help" these benighted hell holes, Egypt and Turkey are the role models, not some quaint and discredited idea of aid.

In terms of criminality, all people should be free to go anywhere in the world to make their livings. There's no Constitutional requirement to send the military in to get this guy. We could leave him there to rot.

There is, however, a moral requirement to send in Delta Force or Seal Team 6 to get him out and kill the living hell out of every terrorist in the immediate vicinity. You don't criminalize free behavior. That's crazy, and frankly it's the kind of thing I expect to hear from statists such as the guys who are currently holding this man hostage.

In fact, I think we have a national security interest in these situations to do precisely what I outlined above. We should come down so hard on these guys and kill them so thoroughly that the very IDEA of kidnapping an American citizen strikes abject terror into the heart of any thug around the world.

You kidnap one of ours and we kill 1,000 of yours. You kill 1 of ours, and we kill 10,000 of yours. You give us a black eye, and we break your frigging knee caps.

So given the 100 percent certainty that nobody is going to rescue this guy and nobody is going to deal out the overwhelmingly moral force that you suggest, what then? Keep allowing Americans to hallucinate they are still in civilization when they voluntarily choose to travel to a satanic, barbaric hell hole like that?

Have we learned nothing ...... NOTHING.......from the vast experience of India, which for 60 years has supported complete isolation and determined nuclear-armed vigilance against this horrid enemy? Hindu Indians never go go there.......hell.....millions of them faced death to beat feet out of there at partition. Many of them left behind all their earthly belongings - homes that had been in the family for generations - to get out of there, and get out of there fast.

Are we to believe this idiot knows something they don't? A million Hindus leave Pakistan in haste and never go back, and this guy knows better? What is his theory on what those Hindus were thinking when they left what was to become Pakistan, with only the rags on their back?

Pakistan cannot be fixed, no matter the good intentions of well-meaning foreigners.

Unfortunately, Egypt and Turkey are NOT role models. Just because they've outlawed some of the worst versions of Islamist Supremecist belief systems and their adherents doesn't mean the populations of those countries don't agree with the Brotherhood on a great many ideals.

You think Egypt and Turkey are "free", or "western", or "tolerant"? Heh.

Al Queda has released multiple videos of this poor fellow. Yes, it would be a miracle if he were to be released.Mr. Weinstein may have some medical problems (take a 72 year old man and starve him for 2 years, probably not the best thing to do). Wonder if Al Queda feels that he doesn't have much time left.The demands sound like a pile of Democratic talking points: close Gitmo and release all the prisoners. Yeah, like that is going to happen.

There are a couple of things that could immediately make the future safer, and I hate to discriminate on the grounds of religion, but how much more of this crap can the west take?1. Western countries must stop travel to Muslim nations, unless the safety of visitors can be guaranteed by those states' governments.2. The west must relentlessly refuse visas and "refugees" from Muslim nations.You cannot deal with people who appear to operate without any acceptable moral code whatsoever.

The problem is that the decision makers aren't operating on any sort of moral code either. I'm beginning to think that the Muslims are nothing more than a political tool of opportunity to supply the threat crisis for which the progressives will have the solution- at the expense of more rights and freedoms. The real terrorists are getting themselves installed in American government.

Obama doesn't have to actually be a Muslim to cozy up with Islamists, don't you guys see that? They're friendly, because their belief systems are so similar. It's the same reason that Progressive statist Republicans and Progressive statist Democrats can get together on "bipartisan issues".

Pakistan is the wrong country to live in if you are associated with the US government and are captured by Al Queda. Sorry, but you are going to die soon. OK, you Al Queda assholes, prove me wrong this time.

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